There's a kitten in my coffee!

I was going to be making everyone jealous by writing about our last caravan trip, but my sister Diz (a nickname since I was small)), sent some photos that her husband Norman had taken of their latest rescue kitten, and I couldn't resist sharing his story with you.

That tastes good!

Meet Phez, he is the one with his head in the coffee mug! He is the latest (but not the last I am sure), in a long, long line of rescued, donated and abandoned cats, ranging in age from elderly and doddery, to young and skittish. Each one is loved and cherished and when their time has come, they are buried with love and sadness in a corner of the garden. I seem to remember that at one stage they had about twenty two or so. What is the collective noun for cats? A purr? I like that! A scratch? My daughter suggested a cuddle or a knead! Anyway, several weeks ago their vet phoned to say there was a tiny kitten wanting a foster mum, was Diz interested? Her first reaction was 'No', and that was that. Five minutes later she phoned the vet back and off they went to fetch Phez. They thought that he was about four days old, but two days later his eyes opened, so he was about ten days! And weighed less than 100 gm. That is less than an average size tomato! Go and weigh one to see, I did and couldn’t find one small enough!

Weak and wobbly.......and tiny!

They are convinced that he was a prem baby, I wonder if animals have premature births, as he was tiny and weak. Diz fed him on a mixture of soy baby formula and Nestum, and used a syringe to dribble it into his mouth. At four weeks he was the size of a two week kitten and very weak. They were both worried that he would not make it, but he is a fighter and slowly gained strength but not much weight. His legs didn't seem strong enough to hold him up and his fur was patchy, but his ears and eyes were enormous!

Look at his eyes.

The vet checked him weekly and decided that his lack of weight gain could be due to worms, so she crushed a tiny worm pill and carefully divided the powder into ten parts and gave Phez one-tenth of the pill! At inoculation time, the vet had to find enough skin to inject him and everyone there applauded his bravery!

Having a snooze on Boscombe!

He is now eleven weeks old and weighs just over a kilo, that's an amazing feat for a kitten who would have died without the dedicated care and attention of these two animal lovers.

Taking his life in his paws!

A 'tail' with a happy ending!

He teases the dog who must be several thousand times his size and who could crush him by sitting on him! He chases his toys, pounces on the other cats as they pass by (and often gets sideswiped by one or more of them), eats like a grown-up cat and climbs the curtains to peer out the windows, sometimes losing his precarious footing and ending up on the floor! Last week there was a gymnogene (bird of prey) in the garden and Phez could literally have been a take-away supper, if he had still been fiddling around outside instead of happily eating in the kitchen.

In my next life, I want to be a cat in their house!